


True Nobility

by Dagonet (AgentDagonet)



Series: Tumblr Prompts [12]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Old Books, Philosophy, Playboy (like the publication), Vampre!Eggsy, this is what happens when a philosophy major writes fanfiction, tho it's barely touched upon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22151071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentDagonet/pseuds/Dagonet
Summary: captain-sebastian5 asked:Hartwin with vampire!Eggsy for the prompts please? ^^
Relationships: Harry Hart | Galahad/Gary "Eggsy" Unwin
Series: Tumblr Prompts [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/350969
Kudos: 40





	True Nobility

Eggsy couldn’t get through his books fast enough, he’d been in the Vault for hours and why the _fuck_ did he keep so much junk throughout the years? Harry’d mentioned that quote by Hemingway _again_ but Eggsy knew he’d heard it- seen it- whatever- before. He’d asked Harry where Hemingway’d said it, and he’d gone a faint pink before admitting that Playboy had published it after his death. An article called “A Man’s Credo” and that just didn’t sound right to Eggsy at _all._

So he’d made his way to the Vault the next time he’d had some time off. Told Harry and Merlin that he was going to go and see his Gran in Wales and he’d be back in a couple days and made his way to the Vault he’d kept for the past 300 years. He hadn’t been there himself in at least 30 years, sent items off and had them dropped through the chute, but this was _important_.

‘The fuck didn’t I organise this shit better for?’ He asked himself, shoving another stack of out of date textbooks into a corner. ‘Playboy, Playboy, Playboy- ah!’ Eggsy found the box shoved into the space between two sheet-covered pieces of furniture and pried it open. ‘Hemingway died in… the 60s, so that means it’s gotta be one of these.’ Eggsy tucked his tongue across his teeth, the tip poking from between his lips as he flipped through them until finding what he was looking for.

‘Okay, so he wasn’t _wrong_ I just…’ Eggsy frantically spun in place, looking for the shelf he knew held all the books he’d collected when he’d passed himself off as a philosopher. ‘Where is… that!’ Eggsy spotted the book he wasn’t sure he’d actually remembered or made up entirely- a collection of Ethical Addresses he’d bought, read once, and shortly thereafter decided to abandon a profession of philosophy entirely.

But not before having a bit of a moment for W.L. Sheldon, and the words he had no idea would affect a monster so deeply. 

‘Fuck yeah, there we go,’ Eggsy propped himself atop the closest solid structure and crossed his legs, and pulled the book close and allowed himself the luxury of reading to himself before nodding and packing the weathered tome carefully into his bag.

—

It was a long while before Eggsy made mention of the book. He and Harry had had the ‘so you’re a creature of the night’ discussion years ago, and all the questions it entailed, but that didn’t mean that Eggsy liked to remind Harry of their difference in species. It was difficult enough to seduce the man when he’d been convinced that their age difference had been in decades instead of centuries.

Luckily Harry’d taken to it quick, allowed himself to fantasise and ask and _demand_ until Eggsy could barely imagine what it was like not to feed from the deceptively elegant gentleman. Not to know what his pulse felt like and sounded like and _tasted_ like. Harry hadn’t asked for the bite, whether from a lack of courage or desire Eggsy had no idea but he wasn’t one to press such things. He’d ask when he felt ready, or Eggsy’d Change him the next time he nearly died. Either way.

But all of that didn’t mean that reminders of age were at all welcome.

So Eggsy’d avoided it until a birthday, like the polite gentleman he was currently professing to have become, and wrapped the book in paper covered in cartoon bats just to see the exasperated look on Harry’s face.

‘Eggsy, this must have cost you a fortune…’ Harry breathed, taking in the pristine binding and date of publication. Outside of estate sales, something like this was difficult to find for your average human. But, of course, Eggsy was anything but.

‘Nah, had it lyin’ around for ages ‘til you reminded me of it.’ Harry’s head snapped up, a question in his eyes, and Eggsy laughed a bit. ‘You with the Hemingway, the whole “superior to your former self” bit and the way you blushed when I asked where it came from.’

‘But this isn’t-’

‘No, it ain’t Playboy- tho I’ve got that, too,’ Eggsy waggled an eyebrow, ‘but that’s where that bit really came from. ‘Least, that’s where _I_ knew it from- see, I put in a mark,’ Eggsy lent forward and pulled open the cover, turned pages until he made it to the bookmark he’d left in it over a century ago.

_Remember that in the struggle of life it is always possible to turn one kind of defeat into another kind of victory. Try it and see! Remember that if you cannot realize the ends of your being in one way, you can in another. Realize something! You will have to render an account somehow. Remember that there is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. Remember that you show what you are by the way you talk about people. Remember that, as you grow older, nature’s tendencies are laying their grip upon you. Nature may be on your side when you are young, but against you later on._

**Author's Note:**

> So that superior to your former self bit actually dates back to the late 1890s, and it wasn't published under Hemingway until the early 1960s. Who knows how much further back the quote goes, but that's the earliest bit that was talked about at my Uni classes. Cos I am an extra human who couldn't resist preaching about a thing in the guise of fic. Oops?
> 
> And, as always, you can find me on tumblr at [AgentDagonet](http://www.agentdagonet.tumblr.com) feel free to send me prompts or recs or whatever. I'll try anything recommended!


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